One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors:
Plato

Monday, December 01, 2008

Well, I guess it is done

The Canadian Parliament seems to be on an unalterable course towards and Liberal/NDP coalition government. With the signing of the accord, in public, today neither one of those two parties can now back out or give in to Mr. Harper. Even the Bloc, who has not joined the coalition, has decided to make peace with the Liberals for at least a year and a half. I figured that the last refuge for Mr. Harper would have been to call Mr. Duceppe and say "Name your price" for although the Bloc might be aligned with the Liberals and NDP in social matters they are more closely aligned with the Conservatives in matters of the role of the Federal government in the affairs of the provinces. Mr. Duceppe appeared to cut off that avenue of escape for Mr. Harper today by signing this accord. He would look really conniving if he betrayed Mr. Dion and Mr. Layton just days after signing an agreement with them.I still have my reservations about this whole coalition government idea and I have outlined my reasons in my two previous posts. However, that does not matter any more because events have moved past the point of no return, at least from the standpoint of the Liberals and the NDP.Although, I believe Liberals better be prepared for savage attacks by the Conservatives and their apologists in the MSM. They are going to savage the idea of a coalition, the Liberals, and lastly the GG until the vote on non-confidence. Then they had better be prepared for even worse attacks if they actually take power. The BS from Mr. Ivison yesterday was just the beginning.The coalition deal itself seems to be a good one and a fair one so we can probably expect the parties to adhere to their agreements. Although, I have doubts that this coalition will last until 2011. I think the Bloc has it right, 18 months if we are lucky.Good on Mr. Dion for sticking with his plan to resign in May. I dare say that such a man of integrity will make one hell of a caretaker PM.Of course, this is still not a done deal. Stephen Harper may still be able to pull a rabbit out of his butt and save himself and his government and I am looking forward to seeing him squirm for the remainder of the week. Your move Mr. Harper.

Wilson, the voters of Alberta chose who to support. Alberta will be the ONLY province so "one-sidedly" represented. It is a problem for Alberta, and one to work on. The political rhetoric in that province is so strong, there is absolutely NO ROOM for debate. I've been sworn at on the C-train for wearing a Paul Martin scarf. This will need to change. Ontario views are so diverse. Even Manitoba and Sask. have more diversity of opinion. The teat of Big Oil is certainly a strong and arrogant task-master.

No reason to feel hurt, when your province did nothing to be diverse in it's political opinion (not that it has too). I think Albertans will feel a "pinch", but it won't be because of the new government. It will be because of the Harper Conservative government that did so much to damage safety nets, and did little to none for infrastructure. With oil prices below $50/barrel to stay, I can confidently say the spectre of unemployment in the oil patch raises it's ugly head. Harper policies did NOTHING to help cushion the impact, and had lemmings in AB parroting his idiocy. The big oil companies will simply pack their bags and leave due to the cost of extracting crude from the tar-sands -vs. elsewhere - and there will be, unfortunately, Albertan's in need.

Guess who the Albertans will be looking to for help? The so-called socialists they hate so much. And help will be needed. There will be help for retraining of workers who are losing oil-patch jobs. There will be new "green economy" jobs created. Heck, the coalition will probably help diversify AB more than any other government in the past (besides the early Liberal governments, which put in railways, and later financed oil production).

Alberta will benefit from this coalition, my friend, even though they chose to elect only one member of the coalition. Hopefully she makes it into cabinet. It will be great to have that member from Edmonton.